You know, I’ve noticed something while talking to friends and family: almost everyone I know loves horror movies, horror books, and horror radio shows… but what about horror games? I’ve never heard of anyone who had played a horror game, despite loving the horror genre. Games give you something that everything else doesn’t; instead of watching a character run away from a monster, you are the one running away from a monster. And I think that’s much scarier!

So, turn off the lights and grab your teddy bear for comfort because today we are talking about Little Nightmares!

Little Nightmares is a puzzle-based side scroller game, so you spend most of the game going from place to place, figuring out puzzles before advancing to the next level.

In Little Nightmares, you play a nine-year-old girl, with a big yellow hooded coat, named Six. She wakes up in the depths of a giant vessel (and by giant, I mean giant) in the middle of the ocean called the Maw, which is inhabited by humanoid monsters. Everything is just a little bit too big. The place, since it’s in the middle of the ocean, rocks back and forth even when it looks like you’re going through a normal house.

The music keeps you on edge all the time, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. When you can see one of the monsters, you’re terrified that they’ll notice you. When you can’t, you’re constantly waiting for them to reappear and grab you when you least expect it. Even people who don’t like the game admit that the atmosphere is fantastically creepy.

I liked that you can light a lighter; this is for the darker places where you can barely see, and it makes it all the more creepy, especially since the lighter’s light is very limited, and you’re constantly wondering what’s lurking out there, just beyond the light.

The game-play is intuitive, and the controls are tight. There’s a button for running, jumping, grabbing, turning on the flashlight, and so on. Often, you have to use many buttons right after another (run, then jump and grab the ledge), so this can be difficult at first if you’re an absolute beginner. I’ve been playing computer games for a while though, so I’m much more used to using multiple buttons at a fast pace.

Little Nightmares claims to reacquaint you with your childhood fears of imaginary monsters and darkness. If you’ve never been bothered by darkness, you will be, after this game.

In short, even if you find the game-play hard or frustrating, you will definitely be scared out of your mind (in a good way… sort of), trying to survive against seemingly impossible odds. Imaginative and atmospheric, I think Little Nightmares is definitely worth a play.

If you’d like some advice, I think the less you know about Little Nightmares before playing it, the better. For that reason, I recommend not watching any trailers, and maybe just looking at the pictures in the gallery to get an idea of what the game looks like. However, if you still want to see a trailer, the launch trailer found on Youtube has the least spoilers.

Little Nightmares is available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One. You can also buy the PC download here.

Thoughts?

Ever played a horror game before? Interested in trying it out? Let me know in the comments!

I'm just a college student trying to survive life in Cairo. When not doing college work, I can be found trying to understand web design, watching writing-advice videos, and reading fanfiction (it's my guilty pleasure, shhhh). I prefer staring at walls to studying, which makes student life predictably hard. I'll be writing for the Food and Gaming sections, so be sure to check that out! Other than that, I'm loud, funny, and, when there's nothing better to do, 100% daydreaming.

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Sarah Eldahan

I'm just a college student trying to survive life in Cairo. When not doing college work, I can be found trying to understand web design, watching writing-advice videos, and reading fanfiction (it's my guilty pleasure, shhhh). I prefer staring at walls to studying, which makes student life predictably hard. I'll be writing for the Food and Gaming sections, so be sure to check that out! Other than that, I'm loud, funny, and, when there's nothing better to do, 100% daydreaming.

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